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Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Cross Gym

Workout of the Day

Barbell Complex (60 kg)

10 rounds for time of:

1 Power Snatch

2 OH Squat

3 Power Clean

4 Thruster

5 Back Squat

6 Burpee with lateral jump

One day in Milan and I’m physically destroyed.I got off the plane and met up with Maurizio, Umberto, and Alex around 1:00 this afternoon, heading to their home gym soon after.Talk about a beautiful place.Maurizio has effectively converted what once was a 2 story lofted flat into a CrossFit palace.The entire ceiling is vaulted glass, showering the place with natural light at all hours of the day.The exposed steel infrastructure rises 10+ meters above the floor, giving the place a sense of endless space.The floor is wide open and covered by clean composite rubber.The place is loaded with toys, including 5 different types of ropes for climbing, dragging, grappling, and tugging.I seriously cannot wait to see what we get into tomorrow.

The idea today was to get some pictures of me training with the equipment in the fashion I typically would.Not surprisingly, this took us outside on a field trip.With us we brought a weight vest (utilizing sand weight rather than metal—amazing), some medicine balls, a barbell and bumpers, a couple kettlebells, and a sandbag.I did some wall climbs, some weight vest sprints, and a few kettlebell snatches.

After this we drove over to an abandoned property that used to belong to an important citizen of Milan a number of years ago.It’s completely crumbling now, but remains beautiful because of the exposed stone, large courtyards, and natural overgrowth.This was the setting in which I did the above mentioned barbell complex.With the temperature just over 30 degrees Celsius (85 ish?) and the dust kicking up all around me, this was not easy.To be fair, I don’t think it would have been easy in a vacuum-sealed, air-conditioned chamber either.The first 2 sets I only dropped the bar after the OH squats, but from then on I dropped it in between the 2nd and 3rd power clean as well.The idea here was to get my shit together before going into the thrusters.They were by far the worst.The overall impact during the WOD was most strenuous on the lower back, but now that I’m done I can really feel it in my legs.10 snatches, 20 OH squats, 30 cleans, 40 thrusters, 50 back squats, and 60 burpees will do that to you I guess.

My final time was 19:21.Pretty stoked I managed to keep it under 20, but I gotta think it could’ve been done faster if the lower back doesn’t get smoked so early.Barbell complexes have a unique ability to do that to you though, so who knows.Really glad the guys were there to keep me moving, and get some great pictures along the way. All in all an incredible day capped by an incredible workout surrounded by great people.Looking forward to tomorrow.